Parker laughs off talk of retirement in '16

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talks with Tony Parker (09) during break in the action against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second half at the AT&T Center on Friday, Dec. 13, 2013. Spurs defeated the T'Wolves, 117-110.

SAN ANTONIO — Now that Spurs point guard Tony Parker has set the record straight about his long-term career plans, his short-term outlook also is getting clearer.

Held out of action since Feb. 12 to recover from a variety of maladies, Parker will return no later than Sunday's home game against the Mavericks, according to coach Gregg Popovich.

Happy to be so close to suiting up again, Parker laughed off recent media assertions that he intends to retire after the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

A report on an NBA website in Greece that quoted Parker saying the 2016 Games would be his final competition with the French national team was misinterpreted in subsequent Internet re-postings and local TV sportscasts, which inferred he would retire then from basketball completely.

“Are you crazy?” Parker responded when asked if the report were accurate. “I want to play until I'm 38, like Timmy (Duncan).”

Parker reiterated his plans to skip this summer's FIBA World Cup, then rejoin the French team for the 2015 EuroBasket tournament and the 2016 Olympics.

“I know playing in the summer has taken a toll,” he said, “and that's why Rio will be my last time with the national team. But retire from the Spurs? No way.”

Popovich cited mental and physical fatigue from Parker's three consecutive summers with the French team when he shut him down after the All-Star break.

Quick work: The instant Manu Ginobili literally blew out of his left shoe while defending Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey in the second quarter of Wednesday's game, head trainer Will Sevening called out to a ball boy.

“Shoe!” Sevening said, setting the ball boy off at full sprint for the locker room.

Before a subsequent 20-second timeout had ended, a spare shoe had been retrieved from the locker room, and Ginobili's “tire” had been changed.

Sevening shared the credit with equipment man Travis Wade.

“Travis always has a spare pair for every player ready in the locker room,” he said.

Gregg will be your server: Former President Bill Clinton posted a photo on his Twitter account Wednesday showing him eating lunch at Mi Tierra restaurant with Mayor Julian Castro, former Mayor and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros and Popovich.